“What’s that noise?” has become another favourite saying this month when you hear a noise.

You can now turn lights off as well as on as you’ve grown taller.

You’ve been eating blackberries for first time without them being pureed. Beforehand I’ve offered them to you but you’ve refused them but you munched down a whole bowl of them this month to my surprise.

You went to the vet with Tia (BattleDog #1) for the first time ever.

Two more molars have started to appear meaning night time is disturbed. One more to go.

You watched a film to completion for the first time ever, The Good Dinosaur.

You got a new helmet to go with your bike.

So there you have it, a round up of the things BattleKid learned last month. Pop by soon for the round up of May.

Yesterday, as my sister and I went shopping, BattleDad, Lolo and BattleKid tackled the front garden which was long overdue some weeding, grass cutting and hedge trimming. I almost didn’t recognize it when we got back. Needless to say the adults did 99% of the jobs, with about 1% from their little helper!

Today is World Digestive Health Day and May has been Digestive Health Month. As parents we all strive to do our best to ensure our children are healthy and happy, and one of the most important ways for keeping your kids healthy is through healthy early nutrition, an essential in the first 1000 days of life. By being aware of healthy early nutrition and by practicing it with our children we can help reduce their risk of childhood obesity and digestive health problems both now and later in life.

It is a worrying fact for us parents that childhood obesity is rising at an alarming rate globally, with more European children overweight than anywhere else in the world. To try to highlight this fact, with parents especially, United European Gastroenterology has put together an insightful video which highlights the importance of healthy early nutrition in the first 1000 days of life.

The video also highlights tips for keeping your kids healthy in the first 1000 days of life. Making healthy eating fun rather than boring can help ensure healthy eating is instilled in your children from a young age and can go a long way in creating good habits that will last a lifetime. So how can we, as parents, ensure healthy early nutrition is achievable?

Pregnancy.

Ensure you eat as healthily as possible as what you take in during pregnancy can have both an immediate and lasting effect on your unborn child. Consuming unhealthy foods high in sugars and fats is more likely to result in an increased risk of your child being overweight and developing associated health problems later in life. So eating as healthily as possible during pregnancy will help to create a better start for your baby.

Breast milk.

As we are all aware breast milk contains the best source of nutrients and can help reduce the risk of infection, digestive diseases and obesity. However sometimes it is not always possible for new mums to breastfeed. In this case using a low protein formula milk is the best alternative to reduce the risk to your child.

Healthy eating.

As babies start moving from milk to food during weaning, it is vitally important to give them a good variety of foods, particularly low sugar ones. Fresh fruit and vegetables are definitely preferable over processed options.

Swap the sugar.

Swapping sugary snacks and drinks for those lower in sugar and water are much healthier for your child and can greatly reduce your child’s intake of calories. Not only that but it is much better for their teeth too.

Snack check.

Beware of the hidden things and unnecessary calories in certain snacks. Often the snacks our children like best are the ones loaded with salt, sugar and fats, none of which are beneficial to their overall health. Choosing snacks that are better for their health like fruit or vegetable sticks will mean you are looking after, not only their immediate, but also their long-term health. Plus, by not buying things like sweets, crisps and biscuits you are saving money!

These are just some of the ways you can ensure you are doing your best in keeping your kids healthy and the BattleHousehold follows them too. As a family, BattleDad and I are very conscious of what BattleKid eats, and although he might ask for ‘crackers’, crisps to you and I, it is a very rare occasion when he might get them. After nursery, at home, I offer him fruit, bananas and a yogurt as snacks and he is quite happy with these. That said, we are also careful about what yogurt and how many of them he gets.

Eating blackberries after nursery

I’ve tried to ensure BattleKid eats as healthily as possible, giving him a variety of foods at home and keeping things like juice to a minimum. I am hoping that by introducing good habits now, that they will stand him in good steed all his life.

Have you got any tips you’d like to share for keeping your kids healthy?

As those of you who follow my blog know I am a blog ambassador for Ty Hafan, a charity based here in South Wales. This July I am taking part in their Rainbow Run Tredegar. I’ve written all about the Rainbow Run Series before and when Ty Hafan asked if I would be interested in taking part in one I jumped at the chance, particularly when I found out they were running one in Tredegar which is the nearest town to my home.

As a proud blog ambassador for Ty Hafan I have been doing what I can on the blog to help spread the word about fundraising events they are holding and campaigns they run such as their Precious Moments campaign last Christmas, which is when I first got involved with Ty Hafan. And while I’ve been more than happy and proud to be able to do this for such a worthy charity here in South Wales, I knew if I could help in other ways I would.

So taking part in the Rainbow Run Tredegar is just one of the other ways I’m supporting Ty Hafan. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, a Rainbow Run is a fun run over a 5km distance. You don’t have to run it, you can walk it, hop, skip or jump your way around, or if you are part of a team you could be wheeled around in a wheel barrow (although clear it with the organisers first). The aim of the event is to raise vital funds for Ty Hafan but with fun in mind. Participants are showered with powder paint around the course, so wearing white is preferable to appreciate the full effect of the paint.

The venue for the Rainbow Run Tredegar is Bryn Bach Park, which is a lovely public park with a lake in the centre. I’ve actually been in the park during a sports event in which young teenagers were competing in what looked like either a triathlon or running event. Part of their event was a run around the lake and I’m sure us Rainbow Run Tredegar participants will be doing the same. I’ve walked around the lake on many an occasion and if it’s a nice day out it is a lovely place to walk, so fingers crossed for July!

I, myself, plan to walk around as I am not a runner and I want to really soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the event. BattleDad and BattleKid will be there cheering me on and to greet me at the finish line and to get those all important post-walk pictures.

So far two Ty Hafan Rainbow Run events have taken place, in Swansea and Barry, and both were a resounding success. The South Wales Evening Post featured the Swansea Rainbow Run event in their newspaper on April 24th and Wales Online featured the Barry Rainbow Run on May 11th. Both articles were great and the pictures they featured have me excited about the Rainbow Run Tredegar.

It is now our turn, people of Tredegar and the surrounding areas, to get our walking or running shoes on to support a charity here in South Wales who do wonderful work with those families whose children have life-limiting illnesses.

Ty Hafan, for those of you who either haven’t heard of them before or are unsure of what they do, are one of the UK’s leading paediatric palliative care charities, providing help, care and support to families with life-limiting children from Wales. All the services they provide are free to the families and these range from outreach programmes, to therapies, to counselling, to end of life care alongside their hospice facilities. I’ve been lucky enough to have been invited to visit their HQ and hospice facilities in Sully, Vale of Glamorgan and they are out of this world. You’d imagine a hospice to be a sad, somber, emotional place and while it is emotional, those emotions are happiness, cheer, fun and warmth. I’ve written about my visit during the Precious Moments campaign in detail but suffice to say it is an amazing place. Families can use it for breaks, both as a family or for just their children, and it can be used as a hospice if unfortunately a child is nearing the end of their life. The staff are amazing and it is just not what you expect of a place which can fall under the category of a hospice.

Every year it costs almost £4 million to keep the facilities and outreach programmes of Ty Hafan going for those families who need them. Hence why Ty Hafan need to run events such as the Rainbow Run Series to help raise the funds necessary. Of the £4 million needed, only a very small % is provided by the government, the rest comes solely from public funding and this is where you and I can help. We can do our part in helping to raise support and donations by taking part in events like the Rainbow Run.

There is less than 2 months to the Rainbow Run Tredegar, so there is still time for people to register to take part or volunteer. If you are interested in joining me and many others on Saturday 9th July in Bryn Bach Park to get showered in paint, then head on over to the registration website and sign up.

Registration is still open for single or group participants and costs £12 per person. Groups of 5 or more people can avail of a group discount which brings the cost down to just £9 per person. Participants should also aim to raise a minimum of £50 in sponsorship.

If you can’t run but would like to help out on the day by volunteering, Ty Hafan would greatly appreciate it. Volunteering roles range from Paint Throwing to Park and Registration marshals for the event. Please email events@tyhafan.org for information and to sign up.

If you aren’t able to make it there is one more event on Pendine Sands taking place in September or you could sponsor me for my run by going to my JustGiving page and giving what you can.

I’d really like my readers to support my Rainbow Run for Ty Hafan as it really is a fantastic charity who deserves our support. Even if you can only spare £1, it is £1 more towards Ty Hafan’s £4 million yearly target.

I’ll be doing an information post nearer the time for all us Rainbow Run Tredegar participants but I just want to thank you, my readers, if you’ve read this far. Even just reading this post means 1 more person is aware of Ty Hafan and the work they do.

It’s BritMums Live time of year and this year I’m taking the plunge and joining hundreds of fellow parent bloggers in London on Saturday 25th June for the biggest parent blogging conference. Last year saw +500 attendees and I can only imagine there will be more this year.

I’m going on my own, no Stone Travel or ItsCherrySue to hold my hand but the lovely Aly from Bug, Bird, Bee (a fellow Snapchatter) has offered to meet me and introduce me to some people which I’m so grateful for. I’m really nervous and can become quite shy at events like this! I’m probably travelling down the day before as trains from Abergavenny may not start early enough on Saturday for me to make it to the event for the start time. I may even need to travel from Bristol Parkway.

The lovely people at BritMums have put together a linky for attendees to write about themselves and learn about others going. So here’s mine:

My name: Catherine Jordan but people often call me Cath. Either is fine.

Find me on social media: Easy, I’m BattleMum everywhere. Just look for the female bike helmet avatar (shown below). I’m on most platforms including Snapchat but I’m not on YouTube. To be honest I’ve enough going on without adding vlogging onto my already long to-do list

How I look:

This is me! Long-ish brown hair, hazel (broken) eyes, mixed up Irish accent (I’m called the foreigner by my family) and a short-arse at 5’ 2”. And I probably won’t look as polished as this!

Is this my first blogging event? No, I recently attended Traverse 16 in Cardiff. The talks were great and I got some brilliant hints and tips from some fantastic travel bloggers. I wrote all about my Traverse experience on the blog.

I will be wearing…. Most likely jeans, flat ballerina shoes and a top of sorts. I’ll also have a notebook in hand as I’m old-school. And I’ll probably be Snapchatting with Aly!

What I hope to gain from #BML16: I’d like to meet fellow bloggers face to face, if I can overcome my shyness, and also gain some hints and tips in how to develop and grow my blog.

My tips for a great conference: Having only been to one so far, I’d say wear comfortable shoes and bring a portable phone charger. You don’t want to get caught short on phone battery if you’re planning on being on social media during the day, as it’ll be a busy one for updates I’m sure!

So there you have it. I hope some of you will come say hi and I hope we all have a fab day. I look forward to meeting alot of you.

BA Certified

Mad Blog Awards

Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards – Shortlisted

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